Blog v Wiki

What is the difference bettween a blog and a wiki? This is the same question I asked myself when I began using these two during the class. After becoming more comfortable with the two, I can understand their differences. A blog is a regularly updated web page that is typically operated by one or many individuals. The general style of a blog is informal or conversational. A blogger will post entries and users of the same community may post their own comments in a way to generate a discussion or voice their opinions. Blogs are usually updated moderately with about a post a day and the purpose of it is for communication.

A wiki, on the other hand, has multiple contributors meaning there is no sole contributor. The purpose of a wiki is to share knowledge and grows rapidly since there can be edits at any given time by a group or team. A wiki page has links to other wiki pages and can also start discussions among others through a forum or on the web page itself. Wiki is a prime example of collaborative work. Although a wiki is similar to a blog in the sense that users can have discussion forums or posts, a wiki's primary focus is the collaboration with information and frequent updating of information.

These two are similar in many ways such as the fact that they are user-generated and can incorporate different types of media such as videos, photos, audio clips, etc. while serving a similar idea of sharing information with the public. The importance of convergence in a world where information is being shared constantly are that wiki pages and blogs provide individuals to share effectively and efficiently. Most importantly, it allows users to learn from one another and share opinions in an environment where it is appreciated. According to "An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified" by Noam Cohen, information was shared to ambassador Ronald P. Spogli at an efficient way since he was on his way to a meeting. Within the touch of his Blackberry, he was able to read up biographies provided by a wiki page. The only downside was that he had to take a leap of faith since any one, at any point could've been making their own edits to the page.

Users work collaboratively in both blogs and wiki pages, just in different ways. In an article in Forbes called "Yahoo's Next Problem: Tumblr's Traffic Isn't Growing," it talks about how Tumblr is not only not growing, but it is plateauing. This is a concern for those who blog considering the community is reaching a halt and may even be decreasing. According to the article, it seems that Tumblr has reached it's peak and is only beginning to lose its users to viral content sites, who essentially share their users. The article raises the concern "could it be that casual Tumblr users-the kind who consume content but don't produce any of their own-are going to Buzzfeed instead" of Tumblr. This may be true since there seems to be a decline in interest to provide information but rather share what's already out there.

I personally believe that both blogs and wikis are helpful in the sense that they share information, however, wiki pages are not always ideal. One can argue that blogs are meant to be informal and conversational so not all the information is accurate but who can really tell if a wiki page hasn't been compromised with fabricated information? One way to make wiki more practical is to incorporate Reddit since it allows users to communicate and share issues of concern, interest, and more. Much of the users from Reddit are passionate enough to do the research and add credible sources of information to these wiki page forums.